So I've been starting off very slowly, just building the most basic of sets like crats and simple houses. But I love the look of the TLX sets, and picked up a couple (which I can't spell right now - Thoumont and Himmelvale I think).

I've been reading the directions, and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Did any of you experience that feeling at first? Does it take as long as it looks to build these? I dont have a robo cutter (cant seem to find any locally) so it will all be hand cutting. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the paper terrain building process, but now I'm seeing templates and label sheets and foamcore with lots of cutouts in them, and starting to really quake in my boots. Any tips, or experiences to share?

Start with Streets. If you haven't got it, you should probably get the planner, as it will help you plan what to print and cut. Then start with a nice small 3 tile x3 tile area, like a fountain with archways surrounded by a road. Start small and build out, every thing you build will be reusable and just add to what you can make cities with.

First thing, look at the forums, there are several threads on getting started, glues, knives, and the like. I recommend getting double sided tape for use instead of glue - less prone to making the paper damp and wrinkly.

For choosing what to make first.... Start with the basics - make about about a dozen six inch tiles out of foamcore - using the template to lay things out. For this I like a cheap utility knife that I got at a dollar store. Use a straightedge or steel rule (again, I got some at the dollar store) to keep your cuts straight. Better to take multiple passes than to press too hard.

Cut out the same number of the printed six inch tiles, score the fold lines before actually cutting them out - it is a lot easier with the bigger sheets then it would be with the individual tiles. Just let the weight of your hand and blade apply the pressure for the scoring. If you prefer, a ball point pen that has run completely out of ink also works a treat.

Cut out the tiles themselves, then apply the double sided tape to the foamcore tile, outlining the edge with the tape, and putting a big X in the middle. Line the edges of the foamcore with the appropriate folds, then press firmly. Flip the tile over, and apply strips of tape to the cardstock and wrap them around the outside of the foamcore. They do not need to be super tight, but should be tight enough to look decent.

I don't know what sets that you got, but a good start for tiles, to get a feel, is six 'outside' tiles - streets, etc. Ten outside tiles will alow you to have a surround going all the way around the two interior tiles.

Make way too many columns - The columns will likely take longer than the tiles, they are a bit fiddly. I am finding a pair of disposable chopsticks that I got at a restaurant help a lot - the larger squared off end works very well for holding things in place while gluing the columns. If there are any parts that will tempt you towards the Craft Robo it is going to be the columns.

Make a bunch of tabs, they might be the best thing to practice with, since they are very forgiving, will give you practice, and you will need the same tabs, regardless of what set you are building with.

Make at least a dozen walls, sticking with the mix of reinforced walls and flats that come on a page is good. These are also good practice.

Keep going if you like - the more you build for the components the more you can play with them later. TLX takes more time to make the components than it takes to build the actual structures, using those components.

The Build...

Place two interior tiles together, using the tabs, then place the six outside tiles like a wide 'U' around it. Again, if you have ten then you can completely enclose it.

Attach two columns to the interior tiles, on one of the corners - no glue, just the flat tabs that are glued to the tiles. Slide a reinforced wall into the slots, gently - you can get more energetic about it as you learn the properties. Pick another fold up tab, and attach a third column, so you can run another wall to give an L shape. This wall should be a reinforced wall if it is on the outside of the building, but can be just a folded flat if you have chosen the interior wall. At this point you will find that the beginning of the structure can stand on its own. Keep going around. Placing columns, then adding walls.

Place two more interior tiles together, again with the tabs. Place it on top of the walls and columns, and you are ready to start the second floor.

Making the components is more tedious than difficult, get in the habit of making them while working on other things, watching TV, listening to the radio, etc..

1. ALWAYS print with Scaling = None (this is the most common source of error made by for new builders)

2. Check if your printer is accurate (i.e. 6" on the PDF = 6" on the page, in both directions). If it is, great. If not, either a) stretch/shrink the PDF using graphics software (assuming you have the skills), b) find a a printer that is accurate, or c) adjust where you score and cut to compensate (e.g. score 1/16" short of the line if if the tile is 1/16" too long).TLX works much better when it is built to the right dimensions.

Moderator posts are in green oraquamarine.My posts are my personal opinion only and do not represent the official view of WorldWorksGames.

Normally, what happens to me when I download one of the sets the other guys do is I find that I'm a bit stunned at the sheer volume of content and muttering "Dear God, it's full of stars" over and over while reaching for an ice pack for my head. I eventually got over that by inverting the way I look at TLX sets.

Instead of looking at things from the bottom up (to build a world, you first need lots of ground tiles, etc), I turn it upside down and look at it from a purely cinematic angle. I think of a few small landmarks that I'd like. Each landmark is 6" or 12" in size, usually. A gas station, a 2 story apartment building that fits in a 12" footprint, that sort of thing. Basically, I imagine the cover of a box of Legos, where there's usually one small featured item--there's a vehicle or a building on the box, it's not just an unmarked bucket full of random bricks for exactly this reason.

So, anyway, I think up a few building or scenic landmarks before doing anything else.

Once I'm done with the basic landmarks, anything that remains is effectively what I call "glue". Depending on how far apart you want your landmarks to be spaced, you can then plan out some ground tiles to fill out the empty spaces between landmarks. In an urban layout, you'd basically do some streets and intersections. I don't bother with curves as I think the narrower roads are too unrealistically small and the curves are way too sharp, I just use the larger highway tiles in a grid-of-streets pattern and ignore the narrower streets completely. You can't go wrong printing out straights, asphalt squares, and concrete squares--those are always useful as glue elements.

Eventually, you'll have enough parts that you can recombine the various landmark assets into different landmarks, but if you start with something specific in mind and set several small/attainable goals, I find it's much easier to get the ball rolling.

- I decided to start off with floor tiles for now - I'm doing Streets of Legend- My stuff looks "ok' - a little rough around the edges. I find my edging seems quite dark (i'm using black marker) and there's a fairly noticeable black line between tiles (maybe that's normal). I've only done two tiles- feels like it takes a long time to make a tile, but maybe I'll get faster at it- do you guys do anything to your foamcore edges after cutting a template out, like...sanding or trimming? I seem like I get a lot of little burrs and stuff, even though I'm using a pretty fresh blade- I bought a fiskar paper trimmer, and that's making it a lot faster to do the long cuts - love it!- I'm using "regular, best" (rather than fast draft) on my ink jet, 100lb card stock (white). It feels...faded looking? (new cartridges) or just somehow less punchy and vibrant than the images on the site. Im' sure that's partly because they are promo photos but hopefully I'm not doing it wrong.

Use a matching color when edging tiles. For streets of legend tiles, I use black for the aspahlt parts and light grey for the concrete. Make sure your markers don't bleed into the paper.

When building a bunch of tiles, I use the assembly line approach. First, I spray-glue and cut some foamcore templates, then I print out some TLX tiles. Next, I score and cut around the outline of each tile and set them aside. In the next step, I cut the tabs slots for every tile, and then I glue all the tiles together.

As for snagged foamcore edges, it could be an issue with the type of foamcore you use. I once used black foamcore instead of white, and it was considerably softer and snagged a lot no matter how sharp my blade was. The white one, however, doesn't have this problem at all.

Use a matte photo paper suitable for inkjet printers, with medium set as normal paper for best results. When I set my printer to standard quality, tiles are fairly bland looking. Only when I set quality to high do I get results that at least somewhat resemble the art on the screen I guess you'll just have to play around with your printer settings and try out different brands of paper.

I use Bic MarkIt pens for a lot of edging. They come in a lot of colors that match TLX tiles well, and can be picked up individually. They took some getting used to 'cause they do bleed a bit more than, say, Sharpies.

I use a set of Sharpie 'Cafe Coloures' (sp?) that I got a few years ago, when they were cheap. I generally go for a color somewhat darker than the piece, dark shows up less.

So I use a dark grey for the concrete in SoL and black for the asphalt.

SoL is a good start in any event, lots of variety without too much complication. For the Apocalypse tile with a hole in, I recommend getting some black foamcore.

And, oddly enough, how 'fresh' your foamcore is can affect how well it cuts, with newer foamcore being better.

Having a really sharp blade also helps a lot - get a utility knife with blades that can be snapped off when dulled. Save an X-Acto for fiddly bits, but a good utility knife is best for straight cuts. And don't try to cut through the foamcore in one pass - taking a few strokes works better.

Art & crafts stores like Michaels or John Fabrics usually sell markers individually. As does an office depot near me. Grays and browns of numerous brands can be had at them.

But I most often buy the crayola basic set of 10 broad line markers. Its got a really great basic set of colors for edging. Brown, gray, black, green, blue, yellow, and red among others. It can be had anywhere, and is very cheap and often on sale. Additionally I find crayola bleed less than even expensive markers like prismacolor or sharpy. Its straight up the best starter set for beginners I've ever found. I find the longer I model the more fussy I get. So I like the sets with even more colors so I have several shades of each color to match any given texture. But I always have a couple basic sets on hand because I go through those gray and brown like crazy.

As far as your burred foamcore. Are you making just one cut or multiple passes? I usually get burs when the edge is dull or when I try to make the cut with just one pass. So try making one or 2 additional passes per cut and see if that helps.

When I was cutting foamcore, I didn't realize how much it wears down your blade, so I ended up with a lot of it with rough edges because of that. It's not the end of the world, though, if you're doing TLX 'cuz the ground pages wrap around the edges of the foamcore. That might be part of the reason that the starter instructions suggest cutting your foamcore at a little bit of an angle--'cuz then any rough edges or burrs don't get in the way of your wrapper gluing square.

And I second the suggestions from others about scoring everything BEFORE you cut out each page. It makes it soooo much easier. And edge as much as you can BEFORE gluing. Again, it makes it much easier.

I use a heavy duty Stanley utility knife for foamcore and use the 3 pass method. For cardstock I have a robocutter, but if I need to cut anything by hand I use a couple of cheap Stanley utility knives with the snap off blades and the blades are cheap enough that I'm not at all shy about snapping them off to keep a razor sharp edge. A sharp blade makes a huge difference whatever you're cutting.

If I'm doing fine detail work, such as cutting out paper minis, I use an exacto-knife and because I'm not terriby good at doing fine detail work with cardstock I will usually make 2 or 3 passes with the first pass just used to trace lightly around the edges to create a slight groove. I like my paper minis, but dread the ones that don't come with gsd cut files, but I'm getting better at cutting them out by hand.

See this is an old thread, but for future references, I find that if I lower the angle that I hold the blade in, it will help eliminate the burs you are talking about. It also helps keep your edge sharper longer, and assists in cutting those long straight lines.

Another thing I like to do to score is to use one of my original Exacto knives with an extremely old blade. In fact, the blade I now use is never changed and is about three years old. It has the blue handle so is easy to find on the table when working.

As for how does one get started, I printed out one of every page and just cut and scored everything on a page and put it all together. Those free storage boxes are extremely valuable in my opinion. Now, when I go to make something I have many options available to me. Do have to make more though, I am afraid I will never have enough.

I too have a large assortment of colored markers that I purchased form several hobby stores. Though most of them do not bleed, those that do will stop if you do a fast pass with them rather than the slow and steady pass.

Jarrett,You do have a lot of great answers to your questions.I find my grey marking pens from a local art store the brand is Touch and has two ends with a fine point and broad point.They do cost a little bit more but i find they last a long time.

Good luck with your building. PS love your art work and like you I enjoy vampire count models.All the best maple leaf.

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